Emotional consequences of neuropathic pain: Insight from preclinical studies

Enhanced serotonin and mesolimbic dopamine transmissions in a rat model of neuropathic pain

“…Early dysfunctions in central nervous system monoamine transmission, specifically noradrenaline, 5-HT and DA might represent an index of the initiation of long-term plasticity that might underlie pain chronicization or sensitization and ultimately precipitate maladaptive consequences responsible for affective disorders (Yalcin et al, 2014). Here we report that, following peripheral nerve injury, discharge rate of 5-HT DRN neurons and burst firing of VTA DA cells are enhanced, when compared with shamoperated animals.…”

“…Moreover, increased peripheral sensory nerve activity induces multiple transsynaptic modifications that extend to the central nervous system (Baliki et al, 2006;Baron, 2006;Woolf, 2004;Yalcin et al, 2014Yalcin et al, , 2011. Indeed, chronic maladaptive plasticity underlies emotional, affective and cognitive symptoms of neuropathic pain syndrome, i.e.…”

“…Indeed, chronic maladaptive plasticity underlies emotional, affective and cognitive symptoms of neuropathic pain syndrome, i.e. anxiety, anhedonia and depression (Baliki et al, 2006;Neugebauer et al, 2009;Oluigbo et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2011;Yalcin et al, 2014).…”

Structural Brain Changes in Patients With COPD

“…Various mechanisms including axonal remodeling, changes in dendritic spines, dendritic atrophy, synaptic plasticity (eg, synaptogenesis, synapse elimination, long-term potentiation/depression, or synapse turnover), changes in cell size, changes in oxygenation, and neural or glial cell genesis have been suggested to contribute to experience-dependent cortical plasticity. [44][45][46][47][48][49][50] Therefore, future studies with different methodology will be necessary to examine which of these potential mechanisms contribute to structural brain changes in COPD.…”

The hippocampus and TNF: Common links between chronic pain and depression

“…Indeed, SNI rats exhibited depression-like behavior (increased forced swimming immobility and decreased sucrose preference, a measure of anhedonia) that was long-lasting when compared to sham-operated rats . In fact, as recently reviewed by Yalcin et al (2014), many early studies modeling depressive consequences of chronic pain utilized animal neuropathic pain models, but yielded conflicting results. Of these studies, those that assessed pain-induced depressive behaviors at later times (>3 weeks) following peripheral nerve injury reported development of a depression-related phenotype (Yalcin et al, 2014).…”